JEWISH GALICIA & BUKOVINA

Promoting the study and commemoration of the cultural heritage

In cooperation with:

Bilshivtsi is a village on the Gnilaya Lipa River (a tributary of the Dniester), 8 km from Halych and 3 km from the highway Lwow - Ivano-Frankivsk. Situated in a boggy plain. First mentioned in 1426. Chartered in 1609. Jews are entioned in documents going back to 1635. 

Once Bilshivtsi was a town with Jewish, Polish and Ukrainian population, but now it is a quite Ukrainian village.

The Annunciation church and Carmelite monastery, which were built in 1624 and desecrated by the Soviets, are being restored by Poles.

One synagogue was rebuilt during the Soviet times into a House of Culture. Its building was enlarged with attachments on the western and southern sides. Another synagogue, standing nearby, was destroyed and used as building material for the House of Culture.

At the Jewish cemetery on a hill, an Austrian artillery unit was stationed during World War I. The traces of the entrenchments are still visible, while all tombstones disappeared in the Soviet times. 

For photographs made by Dr. Vladimir Levin  in August 2009 see Gallery section.

 The synagogue building in the center of the town serves today as a club and a concert hall.